Shanxi candy company earns global reputation

By Zhao Qian ( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2015-12-30

A thirty-year-old candy company in Shanxi province inked overseas deals worth $9 million in the four-day Canton Fair this September, thanks to its leading technologies, unique product designs, and high product quality.

The big orders are the trust and return the Shanxi Jinli Candy Co Ltd, a candy producer established in 1984 in Huairen county of Shanxi's Shuozhou city, received for its decades of efforts in candy and sweets research and development.

“Over 20 years ago, I read a news report in Shanxi Daily about a survey of Shanxi's candy industry, which was in depression,” said Hao Dianying, president of the company. “The coverage increased my sense of responsibility to revitalize the province's candy industry, but I didn't expect that my company would be the only one to make it through to today.”

For Hao, candy is not just a simple snack but a result of the down-to-earth application of the integrity of Shanxi merchants in their traditional culture.

Over the years, the Shanxi Jinli Candy Co has sold its middle-high-end candies to over 13 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Russia, Spain, and Belgium. In 2014, the company's exports reached $1.5 million and gross sales reached 36 million yuan ($5.55 million).

Today's success comes after years of difficulties, said Hao. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy several times in the past decades when it was stuck with lack of funds, loss of workers, sluggish sales, and an unfavorable outside environment.

A strong passion for the candy industry supported Hao as he went through all the difficulties to make a breakthrough. In 2000, he visited large candy production companies in China and some foreign countries, such as Germany, Italy, Mongolia, and Russia, to learn advanced technologies and management experience.

The only way Hao found to survive in the homogeneous competition in the candy industry was to innovate his technologies and techniques based on his thorough survey.

So he decided to change his target customers to children and young people by updating the candy machines, diversifying product shapes and flavors, and using transparent packages. The move was a big success in the domestic market with the company's products becoming best sellers in China's Northeast, Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Shandong province.

Although its brand had won many prizes, the company eyed the international market for greater development.

Hao knew that only if he could enter the European and American markets, and then that means his candies were of an internationally approved quality.

The dream of exporting the candies abroad was sweet, but the reality was difficult and meant continuous hard work.

The company was required to go through a series of procedures to get qualification approval from different regions, and getting the certification from the US's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took eight years.

The company's production manager, Tian Zhiqiang, said that to meet the strict standards of the FDA, the company not only brought in advanced production equipment from abroad to ensure constant quality, but implemented a strict production and management system, including raw materials purchasing, working procedures, testing, and training.

In 2010, the company began to export its candies to the Netherlands and in 2011, it established a cooperation relationship with the US Disney company. In 2015, it was listed among suppliers for the US-based Wal-Mart, becoming one of the few Chinese candy producers to enter the European and American markets.

Considering that European and North American countries demand a large number of candies for Valentine's Day or Christmas, the company also improved its product designs to provide hundreds of varieties, said Zhang Yufei, the company's foreign trade manager.

Despite a slow economic growth at home and abroad, the company's supply falls short of demand thanks to its reliable quality and unique designs.

The company is still constructing its second production line, so it has no other choice but to give up some large orders for the time being, Hao Dianying said with regret.

Candy is one of the most popular snacks around the globe, with global sales growing to €153 billion in 2015 from €121 billion in 2009, according to Euromonitor International, a British independent provider of strategic market research. Emerging markets, including the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, are expected to grow by 6-10 percent.

In China, driven by weddings, festivals and the children market, the candy industry is also expanding at a fast pace. As imitation doesn't work anymore, candy enterprises need to pay attention to research and development to build their brands.